The changing academic work environment

“The paradox of the under-performing professor”, a piece by Liz Morrish published on 10th July 2015, begins:

This post has been inspired by an apparent declaration of hostilities towards professors in a number of universities. The weapon of choice has been performance management, and some aspects of audit culture have been liberated from their usual role of absorbing academics’ time to becoming instruments of punishment.

The rise of academic capitalism, both at the corporate and individual level, did not happen by accident, nor was it simply imposed arbitrarily from the outside. The failure of academics as individuals and universities as corporate bodies to challenge the spread of market values and new managerialism in higher education, and, at times, their collaboration with these for personal and/or institutional career gains has, in itself, diminished academic freedom.